Mobile Entertainment Forum proposes guidelines for SMS voting
by Russell Shaw
Al;though specific statistics are elusive, it is a given that SMS is used by numerous television and radio stations and networks for voting purposes.
There’s even a term for some of this activity. It’s called “Participation TV.” Thinhk “American Idol” voting here in North America, and lots of quizzes and contests in Europe.
Yesterday, the Mobile Entertainment Forum introduced guidelines for SMS voting that it hopes will minimize what it seems to be acknowledging as the potential for fraud and inefficiency.
For now, these guidelines will be a type of voluntary code that will make the votng processes auditable.
According to Telephony Online’s Kevin Fitchard, most of the shortcomings in Participation TV so far have occurred in the U.K.
“Over the last year there have been several examples of premium SMS abuse,” writes Fitchard. “U.K. television shows–overcharging for premium SMS messages, texts or automated phone votes not being counted, and other instances where customers phone or text entries simply disappeared into the ether despite being charged.”
He then cites an instance on the U.K.’s Channel 4, where on a a popular daytime talk show viewers were encouraged “to send in contest entries via SMS, giving them a chance to participate in the show’s You Say We Pay quiz. But even as the hosts were encouraging viewers to call in their entries for $2 a call, the contestants had already been selected, resulted in an estimated 35,000 people being cheated out of their money.”
If you think that resulted in an outcry, you’re right.
“MEF general manager for the Americas Karen Allen said the controversy resulted in an enormous loss of confidence in the U.K. for participation TV, one study finding that 35% of people surveyed would not participate in voting or contest campaigns again,” Fitchard writes. “While such a controversy has yet to hit the U.S., Allen said that the MEF is trying to be pro-active by anticipating any sort of problems before they occur.”
Good for them.
